Shinsou is not a cat
by appalachianblue
Summary: Midoriya gets hit by a de-aging quirk, Bakugou babysits, Shinsou gets black mail pictures, and eventually they all become friends. Rated T for swearing.
1. We're friends, right?

"C'mon, brat."

Shinsou smirked and looked up from the rack of sweaters. A teen was dragging a little kid - his brother, probably - along by the arm. The kid had freckles and eyes fascinated by absolutely _everything._ He happily let himself be tugged through the mall, too distracted to use his legs properly anyways. Suddenly, he froze. His eyes shone and he nearly vibrated with energy.

"Kacchan! That All Might shirt." He pointed into the clothing store Shinsou was perusing. "Do I have it?"

The teen - Kacchan - also stopped. His eyes found the shirt and he headed automatically into the store. "Nope. And you can't get it cause I am."

"Kacchan!" the kid pouted. "I saw it first."  
"Well they don't have brat kid sizes anyways."

"They have high-school me size!"

"I don't know what that is. You grow up to be a dweeb."

Well, that was odd. Shinsou knew fans got hard core, but he didn't think buying your older self clothing was normal. Though the kid's brother or whoever showed no signs of outgrowing the All Might phase so maybe it was a safe buy.

"That's not true!" the kid shouted back.

"Shut up and I'll buy you an ice cream."

There was a pause.

"Alright," the kid agreed happily, "I'll just come back and buy it, anyways. And then we can match!"

There was a small scuffle Shinsou couldn't see through the clothing racks. Wait. Why was he trying to watch like a creeper? Shinsou pushed the strange conversation to the back of his mind and considered a sweater with coffee scrawled across it in five different languages.

Half an hour later, Shinsou was sitting beside his shopping bag and waiting patiently for a tabby at the mall's pet store/cat rescue center to notice him. A blur of green barreled through the door. It was the kid from earlier, the teen hot on his heels. The kid made a beeline for an angry ball of fluff and the older blond scooped him up just in time to avoid claws. "Deku! Leave the fluffy fuck alone!"

Shinsou raised an eyebrow. "Should you really be cursing in front of a pre-schooler?"

Angry red eyes met his. Whoops. He'd said that aloud.

Shinsou looked closer. Wait. Now that the guy's face was twisted into a scowl he looked familiar. "You're the explosion kid from the hero course."

"Who the fuck are you?"

The little boy - Deku, Shinsou supposed though it wasn't exactly a conventional name - stepped forward and distracted the teens from their stare down. "Do you go to UA, too? Do you want to be a hero?"

Shinsou shrugged, uncomfortable with the joint question and the boy's enthusiasm. Then, Kacchan - Bakugou Katsuki he realized, now - recognized him. "You're the brainwash fucker."

The green-haired kid's eyes lit up. "Brainwash! That quirk's so cool. Tell me all about it. Can you brainwash multiple people? Have you ever made a villain turn themselves in? What happens if you use it too much? Do you get headaches?"

Deku looked like he was about to hyperventilate. The kid scooted into Shinsou's space and the purple-haired boy watched sadly as the tabby he was trying to befriend stood and wandered off. Shinsou glared at Bakugou with narrowed eyes. He owed him a cat. But the blond showed no signs of recognizing the tragedy his failure to control the green fluff ball had caused.

Shinsou looked back into the kid's earnest, freckled face. He could swear he had seen it before. "Wait. Are you Midoriya's brother?"

The kid shook his head no, but grinned. "We know each other?!" He bounced in place and tugged at Bakugou's sleeve.

Shinsou cocked his head in confusion and Bakugou sighed. "This little fuck _is_ Midoriya. He got his dumb self hit by a de-aging quirk and now I'm stuck on baby-sitting duty."

Shinsou sat back. "Huh." But, he supposed, from the little he knew, Midoriya would be an enthusiastic ball of energy.

For his part, Midoriya was undeterred. "Uh huh. And I don't remember being old. But Kacchan says I get a super cool quirk" - Bakugou looked shifty and Shinsou suspected he hadn't explained the broken bones part, whatever was going on with that - "and I keep meeting super cool people who say they're gonna be my friends and I'm so excited to turn back and be friends with them!" He stopped, "We're friends right?"

Shinsou was about to scoff. But Midoriya's eyes were wide and his lower lip wobbly. Shinsou paused. He remembered his one interaction with Midoriya - the boy's defiant face as he broke his own finger and snapped free of Shinsou's quirk at the sport's festival. He hardly thought that qualified. He struggled to rein in his tongue and let the four year old down gently, when Bakugou caught his eye. The blond was mouthing viciously over Midoriya's shoulder. Shinsou couldn't tell quite what he was saying but he was pretty sure it amounted to tell the kid yes or die a fiery death. Shinsou raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, we're friends."

Midoriya beamed. Shinsou blinked. It kinda hurt to look at the kid's face. He lowered his head to rub at his eyes. Suddenly, Bakugou snatched Midoriya away. Shinsou looked up in confusion. "What?"

Bakugou was holding a pouting Midoriya by his shoulders. "Ask, freak. This is why cats don't like you."

Midoriya turned back to Shinsou. "Can I pet your hair?"

Shinsou eyed the kid's fingers. He was pretty sure they'd mentioned ice cream earlier. Midoriya caught him and held up his hands. "I washed them cause cats don't like sticky fingers."

"You do realize I'm not a cat."

Midoriya nodded. "But you're purple!" He said it as if that explained everything.

Shinsou supposed to a four year old, it did. He sighed and waved at his hair. He let the kid thoroughly muss it for a few seconds before Bakugou stepped in and pulled his tiny friend away. Shinsou straightened his hair somewhat and Bakugou snickered. "Thanks purple freak. See ya."

The tabby eventually wandered back to Shinsou and was nearly convinced to settle on his lap when loud giggling across the store startled her away. Shinsou rolled his eyes. _Fucking disruptive._ When he looked up, however, he grinned. Midoriya had found the pet costumes and stuck a lion's mane on a growling Bakugou. Shinsou pulled out his phone immediately. The blackmail possibilities were endless.

Eventually, Bakugou and Midoriya were chased out of the store for making a ruckus. Shinsou hesitated a moment then changed his phone background to Bakugou chasing a laughing Midoriya. Now to casually make sure Bakugou saw it.

It turned out to not be hard at all. At school on Monday, Shinsou was eating outside when Midoriya plopped down beside him.

"Hi!" he greeted cheerfully before rubbing the back of his neck, "I wanted to say, uh, sorry, uh, for trying to pet your hair without asking this weekend. And well, for petting your hair. I still remember most of what happened when I was hit with the de-aging quirk. It was, uh, strange."

"Yup," a girl from the hero course with short brown hair joined them. "He cried when he saw how many All Might posters he had."

"They were happy tears!" Midoriya protested.

He turned to Shinsou again. "I also wanted to say I'm really happy you consider me a friend. We haven't got to hang out much but I thought you were really cool at the sports festival so I want to get to know you better!"

Before Shinsou had a chance to respond, the rest of Midoriya's entourage was crowding in around them.

Shinsou's mouth dropped open a little as loud conversation washed over him. Everyone greeted him casually as they sat and he was too stunned to do anything but nod slightly. Someone nudged him with a knee and Shinsou shifted automatically as Bakugou dropped into the empty space. "Shut your trap shitty eggplant. Something'll fly in."

Shinsou glared at him. This was all Bakugou's fault for not wanting to upset Midoriya. Slowly, Shinsou grinned. Bakugou leaned back a bit, apprehension darting across his face before he hid it behind a scowl. "What."

Shinsou slid out his phone. "Hey, Midoriya. I got some pictures of you and blasty in the pet store."

Bakugou dove for the phone but the girl with the bobbed hair grabbed it faster. Then, Bakugou dove for Shinsou and the purple haired boy saw his life flash briefly before his eyes - so worth it - before a red head wrestled his explosive friend back. He pinned Bakugou to the ground as everyone cooed over Shinsou's lock screen.

"Do you have more?" the girl - Uraraka - asked. Shinsou smirked and looked over at Bakugou who was smoking slightly. "Yes. I think he might even be smiling in one."

Before he knew it, Shinsou was being added to a group chat whose most recent activity seemed to consist mostly of blurry around-the-corner pictures of Bakugou and de-aged Midoriya. Shinsou's contribution was definitely the most quality. Then everyone was trading cute Bakugou stories from the weekend while the boy in question fumed and stared daggers at Shinsou.

Soon, lunch was over. Shinsou stood up, the flurry of activity around him slightly dizzying. Midoriya waved farewell and Shinsou hesitantly waved back. He felt his mouth fall back into its normal expression and was surprised to realize that he had been smiling.

Shinsou turned to go and nearly ran into Bakugou. He wondered if he was about to be murdered. But the blond boy only shoulder-checked him lightly and muttered, "Later, fucker," as he passed. Shinsou felt the corners of his mouth turn back up.


	2. We don't acknowledge that flavor

**New message from Class 1Awesome:**

 **Cutest Broccoli: Don't forget! Movie night tonight at 8! 1st floor lounge!**

Shinsou grimaced. Class 1A seemed to have forgotten adding him to their chat. He grabbed his phone. He did not need to be there when that Kaminari kid started a spam war. But before he could leave the group, a new message popped up.

 **Cutest Broccoli: What sort of soda do you like, Shinsou?**

Shinsou rubbed at his eyes. _Or maybe the Midoriya kid was sickeningly friendly._ He put his phone aside as a flurry of snack requests buried his lack of response. Hopefully that was clear enough.

It wasn't.

Ten minutes later Shinsou had a new message from, of all people, the socially effervescent Bakugou. Shinsou opened it cautiously.

 **New message:**

 **Bakugou: Oy purple hair. Answer Deku's question. He and Yaoyorozu are trying to carbonate coffee. I ain't cleaning that shit up.**

Shinsou answered automatically, too distracted by the idea of the foul concoction to remember that he hadn't responded originally because he _wasn't going._

 **Shinsou: grape**

The group chat pinged.

 **Class 1Awesome:**

 **YoMomoJoke: Sorry, Shinsou, we don't acknowledge that flavor. Bakugou said you also like blackberry?**

Shinsou had a snarky reply about judging people by their hair color typed out before he remembered that he was trying to _not_ encourage these people. He tossed his phone to the side and focused on his homework.

...

It was 7:50, Shinsou was done working for the night, and his neighbor was blasting music so ridiculously loud that all hopes of a quiet evening were out the window.

Trying not to think too hard about it, Shinsou laced up his boots and headed to the 1A dorms. It couldn't be louder than his room, and honestly, blackberry soda sounded kinda good. That was all.

Shinsou was hardly in the door when the red-haired boy - Kirishima, he remembered - was bounding over to him. "Hey! Shinsou! Glad you could make it. Blackberry, right?"

Shinsou was debating between answering or just leaving when Kirishima grabbed a soda out of a cooler and popped the top off with his teeth. He handed it to Shinsou and grinned.

Shinsou stared at the soda, then back at the smiling Kirishima. He rubbed the top of the bottle carefully with his sleeve, then thought better of it and just put the bottle down on a table.

In front of the tv, a violent argument was raging - an assortment of DVDs was floating up by the ceiling, the tv screen was flickering, and the audio was fluctuating through a frankly frightening range of sounds. Shinsou turned to go. He'd deal with his neighbor.

But before he could take a step, Midoriya was hovering by his side. _Of course he was._ Shinsou face-palmed. This had been a horrible idea.

 _"_ Shinsou!" the green-haired boy greeted, "C'mon, you can decide which movie we watch since you're a guest."

Shinsou backed away at once - Had he offended Midoriya somehow? Did the dweeb really think offering someone up as a human sacrifice was _nice?_ \- but he was too slow. Three heads swiveled towards him and Shinsou felt a deep soul-spanning connection with the cute fluffy animals from nature documentaries. The ones who were eaten by wolves. There was a moment of tense silence while the trio sized him up, and then Shinsou was bombarded with desperate pleas he couldn't make out a word of.

Shinsou grimaced and pointed to the girl with dark hair and audio jacks dangling from her ears. "Not you. Too loud."

Then the guy with the lightning bolt hair. "No." The flashing lights needed to stop _now_.

Shinsou squinted at the gravity quirk girl. "I guess floating stuff's fine. You can pick."

Apparently that meant Shinsou had picked Wall-E. Which was… not a bad choice actually.

Midoriya ushered Shinsou over to the sofas. Everyone was sprawled together over every remotely soft surface except for one suspiciously empty chair. Shinsou sat in it anyways.

He wasn't entirely surprised when Bakugou walked into the room and scowled at him. He was surprised when the spiky-haired blond threw a blanket over his head. On one hand, that was almost nice. On the other, the blanket was not soft _at all._

Shinsou pulled the blanket off his head and watched as Bakugou jabbed a finger at Midoriya. "What sort of shitty host are you? You didn't even make sure he got a soda."  
Midoriya looked up unfazed from where he was snuggled against Todoroki's side. "Kirishima gave him one."

Bakugou rounded on his pointy-toothed friend. "Most people prefer their drinks _without_ slobber." He stomped into the kitchenette and returned with an open soda bottle and a tea mug.

"I already filled the coolers," Todoroki protested half-heartedly, but he took the beverages and returned them frosty and steaming respectively.

Shinsou eyed the soda suspiciously. "Promise you used a bottle opener?"

Bakugou huffed and settled in at the foot of the chair. Shinsou almost felt bad for stealing his spot, but Bakugou had found another blanket and it looked a _lot_ softer.

Uraraka started the movie and everyone settled down. It was… pleasant. The soda was delicious, the movie was good, and Bakugou's tea didn't smell half bad when it wafted up in his direction.

Kaminari and Kirishima got in a scuffle half way through, but Bakugou went and sat on them until they behaved. It was dark, and quiet, and peaceful, and at some point Shinsou must have fallen asleep.

He woke to Midoriya hovering over him. "Shinsou, the movie's over."

Everyone else was yawning and filing upstairs. Except Bakugou who was standing behind Midoriya and scowling. "I need my blanket back."

"Ugh," Shinsou pinched it between his thumb and forefinger, "Why do you even want it."

Bakugou only scowled harder, but Midoriya answered. "It's fireproof! So it's not very soft, but Kacchan always uses it during scary movies."

Shinsou raised an eyebrow. He could swear Bakugou was blushing. But the blanket was far too miserably scratchy to tease someone about. He handed it back.

"What sort of tea were you drinking, by the way?" Shinsou stretched and reached for his boots.

"Lychee."

Shinsou nodded. Bakugou nodded back. Then Bakugou turned around and walked away. It was not awkward at all.

Shinsou finished tying his shoes, then made a rainy and miserable trek back to his own dorm, which he vowed to never leave again.


	3. Coffee?

Monday morning, the movie night felt like a strange dream. Shinsou kept his earbuds in walking down the hallway like always. He sipped coffee from his thermos and trudged zombie-like along with the flow of traffic. When the stream of people curled towards the wall, he went with it. When it ground to a halt, Shinsou stopped, too. He was just considering dozing against the wall til whatever it was was resolved when the obstruction walked up to him.

Shinsou raised his head and squinted blurry eyed at a scowling Bakugou. Shinsou sighed. He was not caffeinated enough for this. Reluctantly, Shinsou pulled out an earbud.

Bakugou jabbed a finger at Shinsou's chest. The mildly threatening gesture was enhanced by the fact that the hand six inches from Shinsou's sternum could literally _shoot explosions._

Shinsou raised an eyebrow.

"Coffee?" Bakugou growled.

Shinsou felt his other eyebrow join the first. That… was not what he had been expecting. His snark too suddenly redirected to come up with a witty reply, Shinsou seriously considered the question.

Bakugou was… not horrible. He wasn't scary in-your-face nice like his weirdo friends. Some might say he was _scary_ , but those people hadn't seen Bakugou babysit Midoriya, or sip fruity tea, and well - those people would say the same thing about Shinsou. So, not cloyingly nice, good taste in soda, and no one came out of the 1A training regime unattractive. Bakugou had nice shoulders, alright. Shinsou had noticed. So what. Sue him.

And if Shinsou was being honest with himself, Bakugou's scowl was starting to grow on him. It did adorable things to the blond's nose. Like right now- oh. Bakugou was still there. Looking tense and glaring at him. Shinsou should say something. Not his fault it was seven in the morning. Shinsou sipped his coffee.

"Sure."

Bakugou only glared harder. "Coffee," he gritted out.

Shinsou squinted. He felt he was probably missing something, but he'd already decided on the outcome he wanted from this conversation. Did this count as a conversation? One… two… three words. Probably not. Interaction, then.

"Yes." Shinsou said slowly. "I like coffee. I have it in my hand. It is written on my sweater. I will be going and getting it after class ends today. You are welcome to join."

Bakugou blinked at him. Somehow he made confusion look aggressive.

"Your sweater… All it fucking says is coffee over and over?"

Shinsou rolled his eyes. "As opposed to being solid black all over? Or covered in All Might's face all over? Yes. There are more clothes in the mall and internet, Bakugou, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Shinsou looked at the clock. He hated walking into a full classroom. "And lovely as this has been, now I need to get to class. So if you would please…" Shinsou made a shooing motion.

After a blank-faced moment, Bakugou got the hint and backed away.

"See you after class," the blond muttered as he passed. Shinsou rolled his eyes.

…

After class, Bakugou was waiting alone. Shinsou had half expected to see Midoriya. Maybe even the self-proclaimed Baku-squad. They hadn't explicitly said it was a date, after all. But it was just Bakugou, lounging against the wall and looking uncomfortable. He nodded stiffly when Shinsou arrived.

Shinsou resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Emotionally constipated teenagers were the worst, himself included. Eye rolls could not become his default response.

"Well," Shinsou drawled. "There's a cat cafe I like three blocks over. No clue if they do tea but they definitely have coffee and cakes. That alright?"

"Tch. Everywhere has some sort of tea. I'm not fucking picky about it."

Bakugou made to start walking, then paused. "Lead the way."

Shinsou stepped past him. Bakugou had suspiciously started in the correct direction.

They walked in silence. It wasn't terribly uncomfortable, but Shinsou kept glancing at Bakugou. Something about his appearance was different.

"Are you… wearing eyeliner?"

"Fucking keeps the mask from gapping. Takes forever to get all the way off."

Shinsou nodded. "It's not a bad look." He was aware his surprise may have come off as judgmental. Also, it was true.

Bakugou nodded in agreement.

"I thought you wore make-up at first. Under your eyes. You should fucking sleep more."

Shinsou shrugged noncommittally.

They walked another half-block.

"You have nice eyelashes." Bakugou was staring pointedly ahead, but Shinsou figured the compliment was for him.

"Thank you," he replied dryly.

They reached the cafe at that point, and some of Bakugo's awkwardness melted away as he looked around for cats.

They settled into a booth and Shinsou decided it was time for the important questions.

"So, cats versus dogs?"

Bakugou looked at him like he'd grown a second head.

"Tch. Cats. And what? You'd expect me to say anything else where the fuckers can hear me?"

Shinsou snorted.

Bakugou ordered honey green tea with citrus popping boba from a menu Shinsou had never noticed.

As Shinsou watched Bakugou slurp his drink, he couldn't help but ask, "So do you like pop rocks, then?"

"Why?"

"If you can decide what fruit flavorings I like based on my hair color, I can judge you based on your quirk."

"I would ask if you like mind games, but you like these fucking fluff balls." Bakugou had somehow acquired a cat. Shinsou was almost distracted by jealousy, but not quite.

"You didn't answer the question."

"Tch. They're alright."

"Awesome." Shinsou grinned lazily. "When's your birthday? I'm getting you pop rocks and a shirt that says tea." He realized what he'd said and groaned. "It'll be a tea-shirt. Ah shit. I don't know if I can do that." He frowned. He'd been thinking Bakugou needed that shirt since this morning. But the punnery… Just, no.

It hit Shinsou that he had recently met a group of people who would have no such hold ups. "Got it. I'll tell one of your Baku-squad loonies to get it for you." Satisfied, Shinsou focused his attention on ignoring the nearby cats so they would come to him.

Bakugou grimaced. "They would." He watched Shinsou struggle to coax over a ragged-eared tabby and smirked as he stroked the cat curled in his lap.

They chatted easily enough. Bakugou had a sarcastic sense of humor almost on par with Shinsou's own. And Shinsou had finally acquired a cat. So overall, the date could be called a success. Except neither of them had actually acknowledged that's what it was.

Walking back to campus, Shinsou could almost swear Bakugou's hand twitched towards his a few times. But Shinsou was hardly going to grab the hand of someone who sweated explosives without an explicit invitation.

Instead, when they parted at the dorms, Shinsou leaned forward and pecked Bakugou's cheek. The blond stared. A blush crept up his neck, but there were no explosions. Shinsou held his breath.

Bakugou cleared his throat awkwardly, eyes everywhere except Shinsou, then abruptly darted forward. Shinsou felt lips against his own cheek - dry and a bit forceful - before Bakugou whirled away and speed-walked (not ran) into his own dorm.

Shinsou raised his hand to his cheek. He knew he was smiling like a dork, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

* * *

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" - Shakespeare


End file.
